26 November 2020

A private chapel that
once served the priests
and presbytery in Kilcolman

The private chapel at the former presbytery in Kilcolman, Co Limerick, stood to the left of the main house (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

I have been writing in recent days about two churches in Kilcolman parish in west Limerick: the mediaeval Saint Colman’s Church, which stood in Kilcolman from the 13th century until it was destroyed by a fire during the wars in 1641; and Saint Colman’s, the Gothic Revival church built across the street on a prominent site in the village in 1913.

If we count the chapel of ease that was built on the site of the present church in 1827, then this is a third church or chapel in Kilcolman.

But Kilcolman had yet another church or chapel from the 1860s until recent decades.

For about a century and a half, the ‘Old Presbytery’ was the home of the parish priests of Kilcolman and also hosted visiting clergy.

Some accounts says the house was built in 1862, others say it was built around 1880 for Father Michael Connery, with the help of a Board of Works loan, with an annual payment of £70 until the loan was paid off.

Father Connery was the Parish Priest of Kiloclman from 1878 until he died in June 1882.

Successive parish priests used a detached chapel beside the church to celebrate Mass on weekdays throughout the year.

These days, the parish priest of Kilcolman lives just down the road in a small bungalow and the ‘Old Presbytery’ is now a private house, the home of David McDonnell, his wife Rosanne, and their family.

The private chapel has since been linked to the main house, and it is now integrated into the accommodation of the house.

School days and prisoners
at Moneymohill are dim
and distant memories

The former school at Moneymohill near Ardagh, Co Limerick … first built as a police station over 200 years ago (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Patrick Comerford

Moneymohill School is a sad-looking building, set back off a side-road near Ardagh in west Limerick, between Ardagh and Ballyhahill. Its windows are blocked up, it stands in a water-logged field and there is no obvious path leading up to the doors through which I imagine generations of children must have passed.

And yet, despite its sad and forlorn appearance, this old schoolhouse retains many of its original details, including the central breakfront and the diminishing windows.

The former dignity of this building is seen in features such as the limestone sills and the lunette window that provide an interesting contrast to the square-headed openings.

The building is set back from the road but stands out in the surrounding landscape.

The former schoolhouse is said to have been first built as a police station for the Royal Irish Constabulary ca 1810. However, the first organised police forces in Ireland did not come about until the Peace Preservation Act was passed in 1814.

The provincial constabularies were formed under the Irish Constabulary Act in 1822, with a police force in each province. This became the Irish Constabulary in 1836, and it did not become the Royal Irish Constabulary until 1867.

The five-bay two-storey building Moneymohill was built ca 1810. It has a central gabled breakfront at the front, facing south. There are pitched slate roofs with rendered chimneystacks, a timber eaves course and cast-iron rainwater goods.

There are square-headed window openings on the ground floor at the front, with tooled limestone sills, roughly dressed stone voussoirs and timber framed windows.

The square-headed openings on the first floor have tooled limestone sills.

The lunette window opening on the first floor of the breakfront has a tooled limestone sill and a timber framed window.

At the back of the building, the back hall was known as the ‘black hole’ where prisoners were kept.

Local tradition says the former school at Moneymohill was a soup kitchen during the Great Famine (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)

Local tradition recalls that this building served as a soup kitchen during the Great Famine in the 1840s. It was transformed into a school sometime between 1860 and 1880.

On first sight, I wondered why a police station was needed in such a location in the 19th century, and how many children it could have served later on.

But if you look around carefully, there are many deserted and abandoned buildings in the immediate vicinity, including former family homes and shops.

At one time there was a thriving community in this part of West Limerick. But the conditions of the large dump at the Gortnadroma recycling and landfill site to the south eventually made life impossible for people in the area. After persistent demands, they finally closed their doors and were moved to better housing in other parts of west Limerick.

The grounds are waterlogged and overgrown, with an abandoned car and the remains of some farm machinery nearby. The memories of the former police station, soup kitchen and school are fading and becoming part of the dim and distant past.

Sunset at the former school at Moneymohill in west Limerick (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2020)